“The simple theory of disinfectants” is that air that smells bad carries disease, and that eliminating the bad odor will therefore eliminate the infection. It would be wonderfully consoling if the theory were true.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife,” wrote Miss Austen. In her time, it was presumed that the most pressing concern of any young lady was to discover which single man might be in want of her. A chapbook printed in the early 1800s gives directions for a magical ritual by which a group of young ladies may know which of them is next to be married, and to whom, provided that one of the young ladies is willing to donate some of her urine.
From a chapbook published in the early 1800s comes some very practical advice on how to win the objects of your affection: “kiss them till their ears crack and when you find a convenient time and place, warm them with caresses, squeezing their hand, gently treading on their toes; and when you kiss bear close to them.”
Like most papers of the day, the Reading (Pennsylvania) paper Father Abraham always included a column of jokes and wit. Here, in late 1864, Henry Ward Beecher boasts of what the Union has accomplished in “two years of war.”
Edward A. Pollard had an insider’s view of the dysfunctional Confederate government throughout the war. His thesis is that the defeat of the Confederacy was due to the vanity and incompetence of President Davis and the men who surrounded him. Here, as Grant moves in on Richmond, the wicked city continues its orgy of vice.